Tyrell Fortune doesn’t want to be an average wrestler at Bellator 163

Tyrell Fortune doesn’t want to be an average wrestler at Bellator 163

Heavyweight newcomer Tyrell Fortune wakes up every day thinking about his professional MMA debut.

Obsessive? Maybe, but for the former collegiate wrestler turned fighter, that’s a good thing.

“I woke up at 6 o’clock this morning thinking about it, and if anybody knows me, I do not wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning,” Fortune told MMAjunkie.

The anticipation is building for the 26-year-old’s Bellator 163 fight with Cody Miskell, who has but one amateur fight on his record, a first-round TKO win.

Fortune (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) initially wondered whether the 300-pound fighter could make weight, but his concerns were allayed on Thursday when Miskell (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) clocked in at 263 pounds for the 265-pound fight.

“I don’t focus too much on him, especially with this being my first fight,” Fortune said of the bout, which serves on the MMAjunkie preliminary card of tonight’s event at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. “I want to just focus on what I can do and should do.”

The native of Portland, Ore., has been waiting for this moment for two years. A long stint as a hired gun for the Blackzilians, where he worked alongside former UFC champ Rashad Evans, gave way to a residence with Arizona Combat Sports in Tempe. The gym was not too far from his job as a wrestling coach at Arizona State.

Just two years ago, Fortune was the No. 3 wrestler at 275 pounds on the Team USA rankings. He was a Division II champion for Grand Canyon University and a multi-time high school state champion in Oregon, where he was in the same wrestling club as MMA vets Matt Lindland and Chael Sonnen.

There’s a lot of possible upside for a guy like Fortune at heavyweight, a division that struggles to groom talent. Fortune follows a long line of mat specialist who’ve gone pro as fighters.

Unlike some of them, however, he’s eager to avoid being a one-trick pony.

“I don’t want to go out there and just be a wrestler,” he said. “I only want to use it if I have to, if he puts me in that position. I want to utilize the things I’ve learned these last few years in MMA.

“I think a lot of people expect wrestlers to come in and fall back on that, because it’s what we know and what we’re comfortable with. I think I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with boxing and kickboxing, so I definitely want to show those skills I’ve learned.”

Time will tell if he sticks to his plan, of course. The training already has changed his physical composition. Once competing at his 275-pound walk-around weight, he dipped to 236 pounds before plateauing at 250. On Thursday, he weighed in at 248.75 pounds.

“The training difference from wrestling to MMA was so different, I lost so much weight, and I had to focus on putting weight back on to make sure I was still a good size,” Fortune said.

Fortune is eager to see how he responds to the reality of fighting in a cage. It’s been hard to escape those thoughts since he signed with the Viacom-owned promotion. It may not have hit him yet, but he’ll find out soon what it’s like to throw punches and get punched.

“I won’t feel any different until I’m walking into the cage, so that’s something I can’t answer until that moment comes,” Fortune said.

On March 19, 2011, 23-year-old Jon Jones brutalized UFC light heavyweight champion “Shogun” Rua to become the youngest titleholder in UFC history. But for Jones, it was only the start of a wild ride that at times spun out of control.